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Materials

In addition to the books below for purchase, I will give each of you well before departure (probably before spring break) a binder of readings, some of which are about the trip (e.g., itinerary) and some of which are readings for the seminars (e.g., Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, some excerpts from Thucydides).

Getting your books on an electronic device saves on packing weight and cost, although some versions can make for clumsy thumbing through of pages for our seminar discussions (“But then look here in the second paragraph on page 37…”). It’s your call. (Each year some students, as they need more space in their suitcases during the trip, donate their copies of books they’re done with to the hotels’ reading library for other guests.)

One other warning—this one about buying used copies of books through vendors like Amazon.com: recent student experience has shown that choosing a used copy under the new book listing often doesn’t get you a copy of the same translation. For example, when you might THINK you’re purchasing a used copy of Grube’s translation of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, you’re just as likely to be getting the (quite outdated) translation by Long, which goes by (of course) the same title. Many listings of used copies on Amazon.com don’t provide the information on the translator. I’ve chosen these translations for a reason; not just any translation will do.

These good, modern translations are portable, affordable, and the first five are from Hackett Publishing Company.

Plato’s The Trial and Death of Socrates, 3rd edition (translated by G.M.A. Grube and revised by John M. Cooper), 2000 (978-0-87220-554-1) [Note that we’ll be reading only the work The Apology in this volume, and the death scene from the Phaedo.]